The Lady Imam: How a Maryland-Born Single Mother of Five Changed the Islamic World

The American theologian-activist amina wadud is the subject of The Lady Imam, a
biography tracing the life and thought of this Maryland-born progressive icon. It traces her
extraordinary life, from her childhood as an impoverished Methodist preacher’s daughter,
through to her decades as a single mother of five, writing ground-breaking interpretations
of Islamic texts and spearheading civil rights movements on four continents. In 2005, she
strode to the front of a Muslim congregation gathered at Manhattan’s Cathedral of St. John
the Divine. With a sermon and a prayer, she broke with 1400 years of Islamic tradition by
claiming her right to act as the spiritual leader of men as well as women.

Wadud's biographer, Carla Power, a two-time Pulitzer finalist, will speak on wadud's life.
She was a Newsweek foreign correspondent in the 1990s and naughts. Her first book, If the
Oceans Were Ink, an account of studying the Qur'an with a traditional Islamic scholar, was
short-listed for the National Book Award as well as the Pulitzer. Her second book, Home,
Land, Security looked at why people get drawn into extremist groups--and why they leave.